Review: Dance of Death

Dance of Death
Authors: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Childs

I have been a fan of Agent Pendergast ever since I read the first novel in this series in 1995 when it was first published. At the time, I remember I enjoyed Relic because Pendergast was awesomely different and the story thrillingly gruesome. Then life got extraordinarily busy for me....kids, a divorce, years as a single mom, remarriage, etc etc....you know...hard-core adulting....and I lost track of this series for a long time. Fast forward about 10 years....only one child left at home....and more time on my hands....I re-discovered my love of books a couple years ago. And I fondly remembered Pendergast. There are lot more books in the series now, so I'm enjoying catching up with what Preston & Childs have been up to since I've been away. :)

My library offers most of the series on audiobook through OverDrive, so I listen off and on during the day. Pendergast solves some of his most thrilling cases while I'm driving the car, washing dishes or folding laundry. :)

Dance of Death was an enjoyable listen! Agent Pendergast's insane brother Diogenes is seeking violent revenge against his sibling. Diogenes is systematically murdering everyone that Pendergast cares about. One at a time. In gruesome ways. He wants his brother to suffer. Pendergast knows that the killings aren't Diogenes main focus though. The deaths are just a smoke screen to keep Pendergast busy while Diogenes pulls off a crime he's been planning for more than 20 years. Can Pendergast save the people he loves the most....and still prevent Diogenes from succeeding with his criminal plans?

The story was a bit melodramatic in places....and the criminally insane mastermind is a plot trope of long standing. But, I still found this story exciting, interesting and suspenseful.  I was, however, incredibly disappointed to discover that this audiobook version is heavily abridged. At 6.5 hours, it is about 10 hours shorter than an unabridged version I looked up online. How can you glean 10 hours of narration time out of a Pendergast book and not have a tremendous effect on the story? I did enjoy this audio book.....but now I seriously wonder how much (and what) I missed by listening to an abridged version. Rene Auberjonois is an outstanding narrator. He gives Pendergast just the right tone and accent, in my opinion. His reading pace and tone is even and easy to understand. I have partial hearing loss and have no problem understanding Auberjoinois.  The only thing that I didn't like about this version is the huge amount of story that must have been removed to whittle it down to 6.5 hours. (The fact that the company is called Hatchette Audio - and they axed out half of the book -- made me laugh)  I am listening to another book in this series by the same company -- also abridged -- and then I'm going to go back to reading the novels rather than audio versions (unless unabridged). I want the full Pendergast.....not the axed version.

I would give the Pendergast story a strong 4 star rating on its own merits. But I'm dipping my ranking down to 3 stars on this one....just because 10 hours missing from a story is a lot of missing narrative. Boo Hiss! (in honor of the slightly melodramatic storyline in this book).

Dance of Death is book 8 in the Agent Pendergast series. It's the middle book in the trilogy within the series that centers around Diogenes. There are 16 books in the Pendergast series currently, with the 17th, City of Endless Night, coming out in January 2018. For more info on Preston & Childs, check out their author website here: https://www.prestonchild.com/   I'm going to listen to the last Diogenes book in abridged form since I've already started the audiobook.....but then going back to reading the novels for the rest of the series.